All shelter buildings, whether they are houses or agricultural or commercial structures, must be strong, stable, and weather-resistant. Such structures are typically framed from an assembly of interconnected wood or metal members that define their walls and roof line. Vertical studs and horizontal base plates and header plates provide structure to the walls, while defining door and window openings. A series of rafters and purlins provide structure to the roof while defining its ridges and valleys. This roof can ultimately be covered by an appropriately decorative and weather-tight material like asphalt, wood or slate shingles, or clay tiles. Likewise, the walls can be covered by a suitably decorative or weather-resistant material like wood, brick, or plastic siding, stone, or stucco.
Interposed usually between this exterior roofing or wall covering material and the framing assembly are rigid panels made from plywood or other composite materials. These rigid panels are nailed, screwed, or otherwise fastened to the rafters and purlins or studs. They not only provide a necessary backing support to the exterior roofing or wall cladding material, but also they provide essential strength to the underlying framing assembly and its individual rafter and purlin and stud members.
An alternative type of exterior cladding material for a roof or wall is a panel made from a metallic material like galvanized steel. Steel panels can be more durable over time than wood siding or asphalt or wood shingles. If properly surface-treated, metal panels are resistant to the weather elements, and are usually cheaper than brick or stone, particularly when installation costs are taken into account. Moreover, the strength provided by these rigid metal panels allow for the elimination of the need for the plywood or composite structural sheathing underlying the panels.
Corrugated wrought iron-steel panels coated with zinc (e.g., “galvanized”) have been used for a long time in the construction industry. These corrugated metal panels are nailed directly through the panel into the underlying wood roof rafter and purlin or wall stud supporting structure. However, the fastener heads directly show on top of the metal panels, which can interfere with the decorative appearance of the metal panels, especially if the fastener heads were not fastened with uniform spacing along the metal panels. Moreover, these exposed fastener heads must include a rubber or elastomeric washer interposed between the fastener head and the metal sheet that seals the area around the fastener to reduce the penetration of moisture from rain or snow through the protective metal panel via the hole formed by the fastener.
Through-fastened metal panels can be fastened anywhere across the width of the panels. This allows wide panels on the order to 36 inches or greater to be securely fastened to the building's framing structure. These panels typically have a large corrugation called a “major rib” at each panel edge and intermittently across the width of the panel. These ribs give the panel strength to span, e.g., open purlins along the building's roof line. The major ribs are formed along the edges of the panels, so that one laps the other during installation to form a continuous covering for the roof. Fasteners are usually installed through this common rib to securely connect the panel assembly to the underlying framing structure. Such through-fastened panel assembly braces the framing members to form structural diaphragms and shear walls that brace the entire structure. Hence, through-fastened panels not only provide weather protection to the building, but also form a major part of the building's lateral load resisting system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,242, issued to Vallee provides an example of such through-fastened metal panels. In this case, the panel portions are abutted in a side-by-side relationship, and are screwed directly into the rafters. A cover cap is slid into engagement with standing flanges rising vertically from the panel edges to conceal the screw heads. Thus, the Vallee panel constitutes a through-fastened, fastener-concealed panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,509,675, issued to McClain and U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,939, issued to Buchanan, Jr. provide examples of through-fastened metal panels that are overlapped one edge on top of the other panel's edge, and screwed directly into the rafters. In both of these cases, a snap-on batten cap is used to conceal the screw heads.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,385, issued to Oehlert constitutes a through-fastened roofing panel design featuring a partial raised rib along its one edge and upturned rib wall along its other edge. When two such metal panels are placed on top of the rafters next to each other, nails can be driven through one panel into the underlying rafter along the raised rib wall, with the partial raised rib of the other panel hooked around the raised rib wall to complete the raised rib and conceal the nail heads. See. While this particular design eliminates the need for special propositioned clips, it does require a more elaborately shaped end profile for the metal panels. Such elaborate shapes can be expensive to produce and make it difficult to stack the metal panels during transport or storage. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,165, issued to Getoor et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,720 issued to Cookson discloses two adjacent through-fastened metal panels whose edges are hooked into each other with a batten cap further hooking into flanged surfaces on the panels to conceal the fastener heads.
Standing-seam metal panels are not attached directly to the roof's framing members. The simplest standing-seam panel system consists of a flat pan with the edges bend up at ninety degree angles. A light-gauge metal clip hooks over the panel edges, and is screwed into the supporting structure. The next panel is then installed, partially hiding the attachment clip. A batten is snapped over the seam to complete the rib. Because the clips indirectly attach the panels to the framing members, such standing-seam panels “float” along the roof. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,356,833 issued to Doe.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,150,130, issued to Ragsdale et al., shows removable wall panels consisting of multiple raised metal panels having horizontally disposed edges. The edge of one panel is placed on top of the edge of the next panel, and a spring clip is then secured on top of the panel edges and bolted into the underlying structural wall member to hold the metal panels in place. A cap having a similar shape to the spring clip's shape is then snap-fitted over the clip to conceal the bolt heads.
In other cases, a series of clips are positioned underneath the standing-seam panels, and therefore must be secured in precise locations along the rafters. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,730, issued to Blendick in which two secondary clips secure the metal panels edges to the primary clip that was secured to the rafter. A batten fits over the clips to conceal the nail head. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,924, issued to Andrews where a panel is positioned on top of the rafters, clips are installed in place to capture the leading edge of the panel, then the next panel is placed by rotating its specially diagonally upturned edges snap-fitted into engagement with the flanges of the clips. Finally, a batten cover is snap-fitted over the clips and into engagement with the upturned edges of the metal panels to conceal the nail heads. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,152,115 and 5,187,911 issued to Cotter disclose a standing-seam roofing/cladding system that relies upon both clips and interlocking edges of adjacent metal panels to secure them by means of screws to the underlying rafters or studs. A separate batten cap is still required to conceal the screw heads.
However, such standing-seam panels require the usage of a plurality of special clips above and beyond the metal panels, themselves. Moreover, many of them require these clips to be precisely positioned along the rafters before the metal panels are laid down on the rafters, which slows down the roof assembly process. Furthermore, the clips used to attach the standing-seam panels occur only at the panel edges. This limits the width of the panels to roughly 18 inches for vertical-leg panels, and 24 inches for trapezoidally-seamed panels. Still another disadvantage of standing-seam panels is the fact that they cannot brace the framing structure of the building in the way that through-fastened panels do. Furthermore, standing-seam panels cannot form a structural diaphragm, and therefore are not part of the building's lateral load system.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,104,020 issued to Suttle discloses a standing beam structural panel. Each panel has multiple ribs formed into it. The edges of adjacent panels are overlapped, and screwed directly against the rafters. A sealing cap is then secured around the top of the edge ribs and intermediate ribs to conceal the screw heads, and provide a uniform appearance to the panel assembly.
Still other metal panel products known in the art provide raised ribs for decorative purposes. The edges of the adjacent panels are positioned either side-by-side or in an overlapped relationship to form a raised rib volume with a separate piece of wood cleating used to fill this volume, and provide a raised surface onto which the panel edges can be nailed. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 511,386 issued to White, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,358,733 issued to Overly. However, these wood cleats must be fastened to the roof rafters with correct spacing before the roof panels can be positioned on top of the rafters and nailed to the cleats. This can be a time-consuming process.
Therefore, providing a weather-resistant exterior cladding panel for building construction having raised ribs for structural and decorative purposes that can be secured to roof rafters or side wall studs without clips or raised solid wood cleating backing strips, and which conceal screw or nail heads from moisture penetration would be advantageous. The lateral edges of the panel assembly along a roof or wall end should be secured to combat the effects of wind shear. Moreover, the shanks of the nails or screws used to secure the panel assembly should be resistant to wind shear. Finally, the individual panels should have a profile that allows them to be stacked during transport or storage or at a construction site.